The Bauhaus and the Articulation of a

“Shared Visual Language”

for Art and Industry

Nan O’Sullivan

Masters of Architecture

“The most famous experiment in art education of the modern era”

Marcel Franciscono, Walter Gropius and the Creation of the Bauhaus in Weimar

“The most radical and sustained effort yet made to realise the dream

cherished since the industrial revolution, not merely to bring visual

art back into closer tie with everyday life, but to make it the very

instrument of social and cultural regeneration.”

Marcel Franciscono, Walter Gropius and the Creation of the Bauhaus in Weimar

“The most famous experiment in art education of the modern era”

The Bauhaus provides a critical

benchmark in the history of modern

design education and in the efforts

of early modernists to define a

‘universal visual language.’

Pre World War One

“The German Threat”

“Now here is an aspect of something new and unexpected. Germany positions itself as a champion of modernism, creating nothing in the domain of fine arts to prove itself so, but on the other hand, revealing itself almost without warning to be colossal in power, in determining and achieving in the domain of the applied arts.”

Charles-Édouard Jeanneret.

Étude Sur le Mouvement d’art Décoratif en Allemagne 1912

Pre World War One

“The German Threat”

Deutsche Werkbund 1907 – present day

Hermann Muthesius

1861-1927

“ An alliance of the most intimate enemies” Hermann Muthesius

Henry van de Velde 1863- 1957

Walter Gropius 1883 –1969

Walter Gropius 1883 –1969

“Let us therefore create a new guild of craftsmen without the

class distinctions that raise an arrogant barrier between

craftsmen and artist! Let us desire, conceive and create the

new building of the future together. It will combine architecture,

sculpture and painting in a single form and will one day rise

towards the heavens from the hands of a million workers as a

crystalline symbol of a new and coming faith.” Walter Gropius. Bauhaus Manifesto 1919

Henry van de Velde 1863- 1957

William Morris 1834-1896

John Ruskin 1819 - 1900

Peter Behrens 1868-1940

Trailblazers

Education

True knowledge can be

achieved only through

learning “the simple elements of the laws of form ” with an alphabet of

lines, shapes and angles.

Johann Pestalozzi 1746 - 1847

Friedrich Froebel 1782 - 1852

A visual language of simple objects. Haptic and visual

senses are paramount

to language.

Learning through play. .

A child’s art

expresses pure nature. Nurturing creative

expression exceeds

formal instruction.

Franz Cizek 1865 - 1946

John Ruskin 1819 - 1900

“A student must attain

the innocence of the eye, a sort of childish

perception of these flat

stains of colour, as they

merely are, without

consciousness of what

they signify.” John Ruskin. Elements of Drawing

A child’s art

expresses pure nature. Nurturing creative

expression exceeds

formal instruction.

Franz Cizek 1865 - 1946

John Ruskin 1819 - 1900

“A student must attain

the innocence of the eye, a sort of childish

perception of these flat

stains of colour, as they

merely are, without

consciousness of what

they signify.” John Ruskin. Elements of Drawing

A child’s art

expresses pure nature. Nurturing creative

expression exceeds

formal instruction.

Franz Cizek 1865 - 1946

Innovative education + Innocent eye = preliminary course at the Bauhaus

Johannes Itten 1888 - 1967

New personal experiences and discoveries would lead to a “new way of seeing”

Principles of the Vorkurs

Feeling and Thinking

Intuition and Intellect

Expression and Construction

Colour Theory by Itten Vogelthema

Johannes Itten 1918

Principles of the Vorkurs

Feeling and Thinking

Intuition and Intellect

Expression and Construction

Gymnastics leading to studies of rhythmic form

and movement

Colour Theory, Itten Vogelthema,

Johannes Itten, 1918

Analysis of the “Old Masters”

Balance

Balance

Balance + Asymmetry

Asymmetry

Balance

Balance + Asymmetry + Rhythm

Rhythm/movement

Asymmetry

Balance

Balance + Asymmetry + Rhythm + Repetition

Repetition

Rhythm/movement

Asymmetry

Balance

Balance + Asymmetry + Rhythm + Repetition + Hierarchy

Hierarchy

Repetition

Rhythm/movement

Asymmetry

Balance

Balance + Asymmetry + Rhythm + Repetition + Hierarchy = Composition

Hierarchy

Repetition

Rhythm/movement

Asymmetry

Balance

Itten Gropius

build compose

Itten Gropius

build compose

Moholy-Nagy

integrate

Lázsló Moholy–Nagy 1895 - 1946

“Reality is a measure of human thinking. It is the means by which we orientate ourselves in the universe. This reality of our century is technology: the invention, the construction and the maintenance of machines. To be a user of machines is to be of the spirit of the century.”

Lazalo Moholy–Nagy 1922

Sculpture - Moholy–Nagy (1921)

“Nickel Sculpture”

Metalwork - Marianne Brandt (1924)

“Tea Infuser”

Painting- Kandinsky (1924)

“Quiet Harmony”

Itten had introduced an analytical process of understanding two dimensional

composition that assimilated seamlessly into the three dimensional forms created at the

Bauhaus workshops

2D 3D

Universal Visual Language

Haptic

awareness

Pestalozzi

Awareness of Space

Compositional

understanding

Itten

Spatial

discovery

Moholy-Nagy Marcel Breuer

“Wassily chair”

The Bauhaus School in Dessau. A timely formalisation of Gropius’s Bauhaus ideologies.

Here he composed and constructed form – containing and contained by space.

(opened 1925)

What will become of the universal visual language?